RED Development stands by contractor choices - Kansas City Business Journal:

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The banner has been accompanied by two or thre e members of for the pastthreee weeks. Those who approach, wantinh to know why RED should apologize, are handed fliers claiming that the developmengt company awarded a good deal of the constructiojn work for its Summitt Fair shopping center projectin Lee’s Summitt to “out-of-town contractors like , a steelk erection contractor from California.” Not only do such contractorzs import workers from outside the area and pay them less than loca prevailing wages, the flier states, “what littl e the workers do make goes straight back to their own hometowns.
” What is most the flier adds, is that Summit Fair is beingf financed in part by local tax incentives. RED spokesmam Dave Claflin said REDhad “a fiduciary duty to spend moneyt wisely” whether it comes from public or private sources. “In the case of the Iron Claflin said, “one of their bids was 78 perceny higher, and the other was 102 percent higher” than the winninvg bids. Dave Coleman, organizer for the 1,500-membefr local, said he wasn’r privy to all the bid amounts. But he said the numberse Claflin cited madethe local’s case that RED was not payingt prevailing wages.
“How can you bring someone from Californiaz and beat a local contractor by that Coleman said. Coleman said the demonstration woulf continue for theforeseeable future, and when asked what the locakl hopes to accomplish, he referredf to the flier being circulated. It asks sympathizers to call Mark Sherwibn at RED Developmentand “ask him to do everything he can to chang this situation.” The flier adds that the local is not urging any workedr to refuse to work nor any supplier to refuse to delivere goods. Claflin said work on the 550,000-square-foort Summit Fair project is proceeding, with a first-phase opening scheduleed for August.